I thought this is a huge issue affecting our youth today... maybe not stormfront youth but it is huge nonetheless. I wasted thousands and thousands of hours in front of my computer playing MMOs... maybe this thread can deter some of you from playing and convince some of you to quit.

What is an MMO?

MMO is short for MMORPG or Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, basically a game where you create a hero and pursue quests, fight battles and so on with hundreds of thousands of other players.

Examples of MMOs - The games and the times they were played.

Note the timelines are approximate and represent the year the game was released to the year it got into the final stages of dying down.

Ultima Online (1998-2002) - One of the first REAL MMOs, I dabbled a bit in it but I probably played less than 24 hours on it... I was only 8 at the time.

Everquest (1998-2005) - I played EQ from 2003-2005 putting approximately 50 days of my life into it about 1200 hours total time played, wasted.

Everquest 2 (2005-Present) - I played EQ2 for about 8 months, I spent about 450-500 hours total on it. I quit because it was too hard, frustrating and my computer could barely handle it with 1024 Ram, a 2.8 GHz processor and a ATI Radeon 9800 video card

World of Warcraft (Late 2003 - Present) - This game is and remains to be the most popular video game ever made, a game that I still miss 4 months after quitting. By far the most addictive thing I have experienced. I played roughly 2000-2500 hours over 18 months. It ruined my life for the time I played it.

Guild Wars (2004-Present) - I haven't played guild wars, but it is the only MMO currently running where you do not need to pay monthly to play it, so this may be a huge draw for young players.

Dark Age of Camelot (1998-Present) I havent played this game but It is one of the most complete PVP (Player versus Player) MMOs ever made.

EVE Online - (2005?-Present) One of the most unique MMOs, takes place in outer space where you take on many roles and can control a company.

Final Fantasy 11 - (2005?-Present) A cool game with great graphics but lacking depth and sophistication in many respects.

There are many more, but I'm not going to list them all

Sounds fun... Why shouldn't I play?

At first glance MMOs can seem like a cost effective, fun form of entertainment. These games are usually easy and alot can be accomplished if you only have 30-60 minutes to play... until you hit a certain level. Let me explain using an example of myself.

When I first started playing World of Warcraft I was a level 1 human Paladin, I fought in battles against bandits, rebels and orcs all across the human empire. I at this point reached level 30.

Level 30 is a 'bump' in the gameplay because almost nothing can be accomplished in anything less than two hours.

I continued of play and over the months I reached level 50 which is the most frustrating (if not the most time consuming range in the levels) it was so frustrating I quit for two weeks... but I came back and reached level 60 (the maximum level)

Hitting level 60 is the strangest part of World of Warcraft because you can't increase your level anymore... all you can do is get better equipment and to do this you need to join a Guild to raid instances.

A raid is basically when 40 guild members get together to battle their way through an instance getting weapons, armor and spells with every 'boss' you kill. The guild members gain a kind of currency called DKP (dragon kill points) which is a measure of how much you contribute to the guild. You spend your DKP on items to get them. Raids are usually 4-6 hours.

Here is the problem with this story. After level 30 my social life began a steady decline and by level 60 I had no social life at all. My guild raided 6 days a week so this was my Monday - Friday

Wake up (7:00 am)
Go to School (8:45-12:00)
During Lunch Hour post on my guild's forums (12:00-1:00)
Go to school (1:00-3:15)
Arrive Home (Around 4:00)
Do Homework (4:00-4:45)
Go to the gym (5:00-5:45)
Get on WoW and prepare for the raid (6:00-6:30)
Join Raid and Travel to Instance (6:30-7:00)
Raid (7:00-11:30)
Sleep

So as you can see my entire day revolved around WoW. I had no time - or desire for a social life when I played wow. My guild voice chatted during raids using a program called Teamspeak. They were my friends, my family... they were and were not the social interactions people need.

I kept this up for over a year. I was miserable, lonely and very addicted. I wasn't able to quit until my mother saw how unhappy I was and told me I couldn't use the computer to play WoW anymore. I was as angry as I'd ever been in my life... but when I cooled down I realized that it was a good thing.

Anyways... the moral of the story.

Do NOT get into MMOs.

If anyone here has had experience of MMOs and their recovery from them please tell us!

I play MMO's. Recently left Warcraft after two years of playing since release becuase I became bored of the game. I played FFXI before that and I'm planning on going back to it.

They're just games, and with anything you should balance your hobbies with social and working life. Admittedly I've had my bad weeks where I just stayed in and played videogames or listened to music but that's myself. I've always been a "Lone wolf" kind of guy, not speaking much but when I do I like it it to be meaningful.

Personally I will not deter people from playing such games if they want to I've made some great friends who I think are Life Long through Warcraft infact I was invited to their wedding aniversary party in Norway but I had to decline due to lack of funds. *smile*

Well said halftrees. I'm not a fan of these computer games at all, for the reasons you've mentioned. I mean, 4-6 hours of sitting in front of a computer?!?! You should only spend that much time online if you're in here!

I never got into WoW or anything like that, but I do remember being quite addicted to Roller Coaster Tycoon in 2001. Controlling your little theme park is waaaaaaay too much fun, and I played that game every day. I never went outside, and never even turned on the radio because I had to hear all the sounds from the game.

When the Part 2 expansion pack came out, I thought "Forget this, I'm going outside!" I guess I realized how much time I was spending, and years later I haven't played again. I look at the box every now and then and think about having some fun, but then I think about how much time I wasted building a fake coaster...

Of course, now with mod duties and Jack_Boot (SF's Chief of Staff) demanding quality at every turn , I don't have much time to spend playing games.

For Will’s part, he admired the massive power of Lord Faa’s presence, power tempered by courtesy, and he thought that that would be a good way to behave when he himself was old; John Faa was a shelter and a strong refuge.

Symbol of Nevermore is right... you can meet alot of really awesome people on wow, tons of lifelong friends. Heh, in fact I had a few 'encounters' for a couple of weekends with a girl I met on WoW. If you don't have an addictive personality then go for it, but getting into post 60 - hardcore playing... you literally have to spend 4-6 hours on WoW at a time.

@ Merlin - Roller Coaster Tycoon was pretty awesome I played it for a couple of weeks.

But yeah, I play very little video games these days besides Wolfenstein Enemy Territory (Because you can play as a German soldier in WW2!), its a multiplayer first person shooter. I usually play for less than an hour per day.

And also I play Civilization 4 from time to time (I'm currently playing a game as the German empire fighting a war to exterminate the Jews ) ... and I'm doing pretty good so far, there were 30 million and now there are only 10 million! Woot!

Might be a problem withs nerds and social retards. Anyone with a social life doesn't spend much time on video games. How about instead of picking up a controller pick up a phone and call someone.

Generally you use a mouse and keyboard for MMO's...

Haha, pulling your leg. Anyway I disagree with you, I've played Videogames the majority of my life, infact if I hadn't I don't think I would of turned out the way I have today. So you can slate them all you wish but I feel I'm a better person for having spent many hours with my friends hacking stuff to bits in pixels and polygons. Be it on an MMO or in my 6-10 year old days of playing Golden Axe on the Megadrive/Genesis in between playing football in the streets and biking.

I've been playing Dark Age of Camelot for three years. I met my husband on that game. I would lie if I say I never spent entire week-end days on it, but it was pretty rare. I never got into any MMO to the point of not having a social life. I play maybe one hour or two at the time, one or two days a week. And I've never held myself back from logging off in a middle of a raid if I judged I spent enough time on the computer. It's all about controlling the game and not letting it control you. Everytime I felt angry because of something happening in the game, I would just log off and play another day. You can entertain yourself with such games without becoming a slave of it. They're meant to have fun, not to built your life around them.

As long as it is purely for entertainment purposes and not a escape from social interaction then I say go for it.

Luckily there are no "Skin colors" in MMO's. Yes, you can be a black person in an MMORPG if you should so choose, but it has no effect on how you play the game with others. The only way you can discover another player's true identity is by seeing them in real life.

For that reason, I play MMO's. I have a hard enough time trying to keep a bunch of highschoolers interested in the movement, while trying to parent them because their parents are too afraid to do anything thanks to the Jew media. I play to have fun, and get those stress levels and blood pressure levels back down. And I do, so it works.

If you let them become a new form of social interaction for yourself, then you are on a road to destruction. All that will result is, (If your male) you will not have the ability to seek out and gain the interest of a female. (If your female) You will have a warped personality due to the worship you recieve from the males who live in these games, effectively giving you an attitude that will only lead you to the abusive boyfriend. Hes not gonna give you virtual gifts just because you happen to be of the opposite sex. Should you expect it (Like some girls I know) then you are setting yourself up for a hard relationship.

In the end, do what makes you feel comfortable. I hate reading about how terrible our white brothers and sisters are dealing with the way this world is. And since I am not in a position to change anything, yet I want to, I have to find an outlet for those feelings.

I'll stop now.

Last edited by Merlin; 03-02-2007 at 07:20 AM.
Reason: Should have stopped sooner

Might be a problem withs nerds and social retards. Anyone with a social life doesn't spend much time on video games. How about instead of picking up a controller pick up a phone and call someone.

This can sort of be true... but I met alot of racially aware kids on EQ, EQ2 and WoW who said they played as much as they did (all the time) because they live in towns where there are NO racially aware groups and all the social 'cliques' were full of muds. So having a social life did not appeal to them.

Hell, I only usually go out once per weekend and only if I know the party is going to be just or almost all whites.